Chapter 10
Tyce couldn’t help the anger that boiled up at Briel’s clear disdain for his kind. He had difficulty masking the venom in his words when he asked, “Skin Walker?”
To her credit, Briel studied him intently for a moment before dropping her hands from where they’d been covering Fena’s ears and pulling the child tighter into her body, wrapping both arms around her before lowering her head and muttering, “Never mind.”
Good girl. If she’d been willing to divulge their secret so easily to any stranger who would listen, he’d have to question her character. He didn’t want to start out on a bad foot with his Angel. Still… “I know what they are,” he conceded, knowing it’d be easier to get things out in the open now.
Briel’s head lifted and she stared at him like she was wondering if she could trust him. He didn’t have time for all that. She needed to know certain things and the sooner she knew them, the better.
“I am one.” When her eyes rounded and her mouth fell open he affirmed, “I am a Skin Walker, Briel.”
His simple admission had all the color draining from her face before her dainty brows snapped into a dark frown. She took her arms from around her sister, lifting Fena to tuck her body behind Briel’s, shielding her like she expected Tyce to attack them.
“You…you killed my father,” she accused.
“No.” Tyce shook his head. “I did not.”
“Not you,” she bit out angrily. “But your people, your…kind did! The fact that she’d reached out to Monroe StoneCrow for help and he’d completely ignored her request, only served to cement her belief.
“Briel,” he warned. Her accusation was infuriating, but not as much as the scent of her hatred that filled the limo, causing his hackles to rise.
“Don’t you Briel me like you have any right to tell me what to do. You don’t! None of you do. You wanna make amends for what you did to my family? Give me five hundred dollars and let me and Fena go!”
“I can’t do that.”
“If you really wanted to help you would!”
He knew she was speaking from a place full of anger and regret. She’d lost her father, and the pain of that loss made her act out, but her lambasting Skin Walkers wasn’t going to work.
Tearing her gaze from his, she stared out the window as she demanded, “Why are you here?”
“So we can protect you.”
She didn’t look at him. “Lie!”
A weighty silence settled between them before Tyce growled. The sound whipped her head around.
“Because of who you are,” he began, “I won’t consider insulting you with lies.”
“Because of who I am?” she scoffed. “You mean, because I’m the General’s daughter?”
Fuck no! He meant because she was his Angel, but that explanation would have to wait. Right now, he had to take things one step at a time.
“He did you all a favor and it cost him his life. Now, you pretend like you owe me for the price my father paid to protect you, but you won’t give me what I ask for.” Her eyes shimmered as she hissed, “I don’t trust you. I’ll never trust you.”
Her words hurt more than he expected. Yeah, she was pissed and scared, but to hear his Angel declare that she’d never trust him had his inner beasts staring at him accusingly, like he’d actually done something wrong. Fucking Monroe StoneCrow! He clenched his hand into a white-knuckled fist. When I see him…
“At least tell me who it is you’re supposedly protecting me from.”
And that was the hard part. He’d just declared that he wouldn’t lie to her, but he had no truth to offer. He hadn’t gotten details on who’d killed the General. At the time, he hadn’t cared. He’d wanted the cash at the Megalya safehouse. To get it, he had to retrieve the woman. Only she wasn’t just any woman. She was his. “I’m not sure yet.”
She chuffed a humorless laugh. “How did you know where to find me?”
“A friend.”
“So. Let me get this straight. You came all the way here to “rescue” me and Fena without knowing who you were saving us from?” She shook her head as she pinned him with accusing eyes. “Sounds like bullshit, and more’s the pity, because I was genuinely moved by your wouldn’t consider insulting me with lies’ spiel.”
His eyes sparked as he glared at her. “I’ll tell you the truth on the information I have. The location I was sent wasn’t supposed to be a fancy hotel room housing two lone females. It was supposed to be an enemy safe house. I was given misinformation.”
“By your friend?”
He nodded.
“Who’s the friend?”
He swallowed once, his Adam’s apple dipping low in his thick throat. “Monroe StoneCrow.”
All the air left Briel in a whoosh and her shoulders slumped as she stared unseeingly at the seat in front of her. She spoke, but it was more to herself than to him. “I asked for his help. He sent you instead.” Angry tears filled her eyes. “I should’ve known I couldn’t trust him.”
“You can trust him, Briel.”
At his words her eyes lifted to his. “So, what? You rescue me and Fena. What then?”
Something in his expression must have faltered, because Briel’s brows speared down as her eyes narrowed on him. Fucking hell!
“Was that your objective or not?”
He looked out the window.
“If you’re still not ‘insulting me with lies’ then I’d like an answer. You weren’t here to rescue Fena and me, were you?”
“Briel.”
“WERE YOU?” she demanded.
Tyce shook his head but lifted his eyes to hers. “No. I didn’t go to DC to save you or Fena. I was to capture you. You were supposed to be shipped to StoneCrow. I was supposed to be rewarded for my efforts and given the Intel you have on the Megalya safehouse so I could rescue other Walkers and extract the cash they’ve got there too.”
She was shaking her head, eyes locked again on the seat in front of her. “Money,” she breathed. “You’re doing this for money!”
“Not anymore.”
“Wait. Were. You said you were supposed to ship me to StoneCrow.” Her eyes collided with his. “Where are you taking me?”
“You’re not going to StoneCrow, Briel. I’m keeping you, and Fena too.”